World Reviewer rating

The Rocks

Right by Circular Quay, The Rocks area was part of the first Sydney settlement and is now a tourist mecca full of shops selling opals, pearls, merino fleeces and other quintessentially Australian luxury items. Once warehouses and slums, the tramping grounds of sailors and prostitutes, this ground is now worth a mint and up market restaurants and cafes are slotted in amongst the shops.

What hasn’t changed are the buildings. Huge pale sandstone blocks were used in the early days of the colony, that’s how The Rocks got its name, and some of these have survived the bubonic plague, the building of the Harbour Bridge and several attempts to gentrify the entire area. Behind the tourists areas by the cruise ship landing there are still pretty old streets of terraces that typify old Sydney. Markets at the weekend attract visitors who usually go on to visit Cadman’s Cottage, one of the oldest structures in Australia, the Sydney Observatory and frequent one of the pubs in the area – they all seem to claim to be Sydney’s oldest.